Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
Homewood Mayor Jennifer Andress delivers her 2026 State of the City address on Jan. 20, 2026. Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
Tuesday’s Homewood State of the City address is the 10th for which Jennifer Andress has been present. In the prior nine, Andress, then a member of the city council, listened as the mayor cited facts and figures about the city.
But Andress, who was elected to her first term last fall, decided to “change it up a little bit” by sharing the spotlight with some of the city’s department heads.
“That is who I am,” Homewood’s first elected woman mayor said. “I am a team player. That's who I've been my whole life. I've been a member of a team.
“This city is not one person,” Andress said. “This city is a multitude of department heads and staff members that put their heart and soul in everything they do. I have to share the spotlight with people like Berkley [Squires, head of Public Services] and Judith [Wright, the librarian]. They're working with our citizens. They're the ones that serve, directly, our citizens. I want them to hear [them]. It's one thing for me to stand there and go through a PowerPoint presentation, but it's a totally different thing to hear directly from the people who made those statistics happen.”
Squires and Wright took turns at the podium at the Valley Hotel, as did Police Chief Tim Ross and Fire Chief Brandon Broadhead. Each cited positives in their departments.
The mayor noted projects that are underway or soon to begin, including the Green Springs Highway sidewalk project and the TAPP grant from the Alabama Department of Transportation that will improve ingress to and egress along the U.S. 31 corridor. That project will go out for bid in May.
Andress also proudly declared that the long-discussed divergent diamond interchange on Interstate 65 will begin in February.
“No other mayor that I've ever heard speak at the State of the City can ever say this,” she said. “Three prior mayors to me [couldn’t say that]. Nothing to do with me. But I'm so honored to stand here today to say that ALDOT has awarded the contract and construction will begin. Some of the contracts will begin sometime in February. That is extraordinary. It's been carried over … on the [PowerPoint] slides every single year.”
The mayor’s address did not include an update on the former Brookwood Village Shopping Center. In November, the development team of Fairway Investments and Pope & Land Real Estate announced the sale of the former Belk department store to Andrews Sports Medicine & Orthopedic Center.
The 135,000-square-foot building will be transformed into a state-of-the-art medical office on the 57-acre Brookwood Village property. The facility will include about 18 operating rooms.
“I guess I should have mentioned that Andrews has broken ground,” the mayor said. “We don't have any other news on the other part of the property. I was keeping it focused on what we — the city — are doing.”
